The story told in the novel is a romantic and violent triangle. Esther Prin, a beautiful young wife of an aged fanatic scientist, was separated from her husband for two years when she was taken from her native England to the New World. Lonely, without friends or family, she falls in love with a young priest, Arthur Dimsdale, and conceives a daughter by him. This does not remain a secret either for the husband or for the young woman's Puritan environment.